Retail Expo 2007: Show highlights

With 45 vendors on display and visitor numbers eventually reaching the levels Ingram was hoping for, there was plenty to see at Retail Expo 2007. So here's a quick run-down of some of the stuff I saw.

AMD was promoting it's post Barcelona platforms, with an emphasis on "Bringing stability to the market." On the graphics side it was demo-ing the Radeon HD 2600XT - its highest performing mainstream card. Apparently 2400 and 2600 PROs sell better than the slightly higher-end XTs and AMD is keen to correct that.

Netgear was keen to show off its EVA 8000 Digital Entertainer - a PC/TV interface that is optimised to communicate with shared drives/NAS. It can't stream most IPTV, however, as most providers require their own player to be installed. "We need unity among content suppliers to be able to stream TV from the internet," said VAR channel manager Peter Airs.

Philips has produced a new type of gang plug called the squid for reasons that should be apparent when you see it. The thinking behind it is the annoyance created by big fat plugs with transformers on them taking up two spots on a traditional gang plug.

Avanquest was emphasising its B2B offerings and also promoting ABBYY Fine Reader OCR 9.0. Kingston was displaying a number of flash drives with specilaised functions as well as its new retail RAM. Targus was emphasising its new consumer-facing bag range.

Belkin was proud of its brand new 'draft n' router, which has its own LCD screen for set-up, diagnostics, etc. Microsoft has launched a new range of high-end gamer peripherals as well as a £250 rechargable wireless deskset.